Difference between revisions of "Selektivni abortus / tuđa večera (Montenegro)"

In Montenegro, abortion is legal and there are no restrictions regarding termination during the first ten weeks of pregnancy. Sex-selective abortion is forbidden (Ministarstvo zdravlja 2009: 2), however, no official record of sex-selective abortion exists. The 2009 law created grey areas, making proving and disproving personal motivation for abortion difficult (Ministarstvo zdravlja 2009). The number of sex-selective abortions performed in the country is speculative. A method of monitoring sex-selective abortions, accepted worldwide, is to compare statistical data on newborns to the standard biological ratio of 104-106 newborn boys to 100 newborn girls (UNFPA 2012: 9). When the number of male newborns exceeds 106, there is reason to suspect human intervention, i.e. that female foetuses were aborted. In Montenegro, the number of newborn boys was 109.8 (UNFPA 2012: 20).  

Son preference tends to be linked to patriarchal, patrilineal and patrilocal characteristics of society (Patel 2007: 293). Montenegro’s traditional social and kinship systems were male-centred: men had a central power and resources in society; family name and assets were inherited by male lineage; sons were expected to live close to father and take care of aging parents. Being a woman in Montenegro meant getting married, moving away from your family, moving with and taking care of your husband’s household, serving your new family, and giving birth to children (Denich 1974). Historically, women’s position in Montenegro was characterized with a pejorative expression ‘ćerka je tuđa večera’ (ʻthe daughter serves dinner to strangersʼ) to suggest that once a daughter got married, she served the husband’s family – who were strangers to her, and she a stranger to them (Milich 1995). The underlying idea is that having a daughter is a worthless investment as she will sooner or later leave her natal family and benefit her husband’s family, not her own. A son, on the other hand, is seen as valuable asset as he will provide care and help, continue the family’s lineage, and maintain the family’s property. Even though attempts have been made to reduce these patriarchal patterns during the socialist period, they were not overcome, only suppressed (Petrović 2014). Nowadays, these customary norms and perceptions merge with modern technology to result in a practice of sex-selective abortions.  

The preference for boys had numerous implications. There is a shortage of women in Montenegrin rural areas as rural women migrate to cities and abroad for education and work, and men stay to manage property. Relationships and marriages with women from neighbouring countries are growing, especially between Montenegrins and Albanians. In 2017 the Montenegrin news portal ‘Vijesti’ broke a story about men in the northern part of the country, who paid a [[broker]] for brides from neighbouring Albania. The transactions turned unsuccessful when the men were swindled of their money (2,500-10,000 EUR each) but could not report the case to the police (Skorupan 2017).

Several approaches are used to study sex-selective abortion and son preference (Eklund 2011: 19). The outcome approach quantifies human behaviour and is conducted by demographers, economists and public health researchers (e.g. Guilmoto 2010). The causal approach tends to embrace the cultural embeddedness of the practice, its social contexts and economic and legal constraints, and is carried out by social anthropologists and sociologists (e.g. Patel 2007, Shi 2017). Studies combining both approaches also exist (e.g. Croll 2000).

Guilmoto, C. Z. 2010. ‘Longer-term disruptions to demographic structures in China and India resulting from skewed sex ratios at birth’, ''Asian Population Studies'', 6 (1): 3-25